g on the sofa in the drawing-room, and all was
still.

"Mamma!" said she.

"Here, dear child,"--but it was Mrs. Langford's voice.

"Mamma!" again said she. "Where is mamma? Where are they all? Why does
the room turn round?"

"You have not been well, my dear," said her grandmother; "but drink
this, and lie still, you will soon be better."

"Where is mamma?" repeated Henrietta, gazing round and seeing no one but
Mrs. Langford and Bennet. "Was she frightened at my being ill? Tell her
I am better."

"She knows it, my dear: lie still and try to go to sleep."

"But weren't there a great many people?" said Henrietta. "Were we not
in the hall? Did not Willy come? O! grandmamma, grandmamma, do tell me,
where are mamma and Fred?"

"They will soon be here, I hope."

"But, grandmamma," cried she vehemently, turning herself round as
clearer recollection returned, "something has happened--O! what has
happened to Fred?"

"Nothing very serious, we hope, my dear," said Mrs. Langford. "It was
Willy who frightened you. Fred has had a fall, and your mamma and uncles
are gone to see about him."

"A fall! O, tell me, tell me! I am sure it is something dreadful! O,
tell me all about it, grandmamma, is he much hurt? O, Freddy, Freddy!"

With more quietness than could have been anticipated from so active and
bustling a nature, Mrs. Langford gradually told her granddaughter all
that she knew, which was but little, as she had been in attendance
on her, and had only heard the main fact of Willy's story. Henrietta
clapped her hands wildly together in an agony of grief. "He is
killed--he is, I'm sure of it!" said she. "Why do you not tell me so?"

"My dear, I trust and believe that he is only stunned."

"No, no, no! papa was killed in that way, and I am sure he is! O, Fred,
Fred, my own dear, dear brother, my only one! O, I cannot bear it! O,
Fred!"

She rose up from the sofa, and walked and down the room in an ecstasy of
sorrow. "And it was I that helped to bring him here! It was my doing! O,
my own, my dearest, my twin brother, I cannot live without him!"

"Henrietta," said Mrs. Langford, "you do not know what you are saying;
you must bear the will of God, be it what it may."

"I can't, I can not," repeated Henrietta; "if I am to lose him, I can't
live; I don't care for anything without Fred!"

"Your mother, Henrietta."

"Mamma! O, don't speak of her; she would die, I am sure she would,
without him; and then I should too,